January 6, 2009
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome back to campus. I hope everyone enjoyed a well-deserved break after the successful fall semester. Unique challenges accompany each new semester, and spring 2009 is no different. We face several budgetary dilemmas, but I am confident that working together we can effectively address these issues while maintaining the academic integrity of our institution. In light of these fiscal challenges, the President’s Luncheon, scheduled for today, Jan. 6 at noon, was cancelled. Instead, the deans, the College and Administrative Budget Committees, and members of the Faculty Senate will meet at 1 p.m. and discuss ULM’s strategies to absorb projected budget cuts. I invite all interested individuals to come to the meeting in Stubbs 100.
Let me update you on the activities over the last few weeks. As you may recall, on December 17, 2008, I wrote to inform you of a projected shortfall in the state’s general operating budget. We subsequently learned that the projected cut for ULM would be approximately $4 million. The provost, deans, and members of the administrative staff began to develop preliminary plans to address this shortfall. Our goal was at that time, and still is, to address the cuts with minimal impact on current employees. Therefore, we asked each dean and the Athletic Department to give us proposed budget reductions in their respective areas of six percent. The only caveat was that we would not terminate employees. We also requested that Dave Nicklas, Vice President for Business Affairs, and the Administrative Budget Committee develop plans to reduce budgets in non-academic areas. Provost Richters, the deans, Dave Nicklas and the staff members in these areas did superb work in a short period of time to develop plausible budget scenarios. To reach the preliminary budget reduction assigned to ULM, we briefly examined several alternative scenarios, including mid-year tuition increases, furloughs, canceling certain contracts, and a four-day work week.
On December 30, 2008, I received a letter from Dr. Randy Moffett, President of the University of Louisiana System, informing me that our mid-year reduction would be $2,379,468. This delayed Christmas present again sent the Administrative team to work. Many of the administrative team met during the last week of the year to devise an orderly process for addressing this new amount. While we were certainly relieved that we would not be facing a $4 million reduction, a $2.4 million dollar reduction still requires meticulous planning.
We determined that we could meet the reduction by accepting the plans submitted by the deans for the academic areas and the plans submitted by the Vice President for Business Affairs for the non-academic areas. This means that at this level of budget reduction from the state, there will be no mid-year tuition increase, no layoffs, and no furloughs. Because we reorganized a number of years ago, deans and vice presidents can manage their own budgets within the resources allocated. While we do have preliminary plans from every college, those plans are subject to review and modification by the deans and each college budget committee as conditions change during the remainder of this fiscal year.
Once again, the plans developed by each college and the plan for the administrative units on campus were built on the premise that current employees are protected. Some colleges and administrative areas had little or no room to reduce budgets without affecting personnel while other units could make substantial cuts. Therefore, this is not an across-the-board cut, nor are the cuts strictly proportional. The current plans call for a reduction of more than the allotted $2.4 million because of uncertainties in enrollment and the expected shortfall in state appropriations for the Dual Enrollment and Go Grant programs.
One question I get from many of you is, “Will this be the final amount?” We just do not know at the current time. No numbers are considered final until the governor’s plan is approved by the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget this Friday. In addition, we know that the environment will change over the course of the semester and the economy will get better or worse and circumstances will force us to make changes to our current plans. We must be flexible and nimble as we face uncertain times and we are confident that our current budget decision making structure at the college level makes this possible.
Those of us who have been in public higher education for a long time are familiar with this experience. I have faith that all of us at ULM are perfectly capable and intelligent enough to plan and implement the strategies necessary to accommodate this budget reduction.
If you have questions that are not answered in college, department or university meetings during the next few days please do not hesitate to write or call me.
James E. Cofer, Sr.
ULM President